County governments increased their overall spending by 8.5 percent from fiscal 1981 to fiscal 1982, but the percentage of money spent on education increased by only 4.7 percent, a new analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau reports.
In fiscal 1982, 14.3 percent of the counties’ budgets went for education, according to the Census Bureau. With an overall spending level of $67.2 billion, counties provided $9.6 billion for education.
Education ranked second on a list of 10 areas of public spending, the analysis found, topped only by the budget for public welfare. Hospitals ranked third, followed by highways, general control, health, police, interest on general debts, correction programs, and spending on other miscellaneous programs.
County taxes brought in 33.6 percent of the total revenue, with property taxes accounting for the largest share of that--$17.7 billion of a total of $22.9 billion. The tax revenue for 1982 represents a 12.1-percent increase over the 1981 figure of $15.8 billion.
